A Delhi court has acquitted five men accused of vandalising and setting fire to Allah Wali Masjid in Karawal Nagar during the northeast Delhi riots, holding that the prosecution failed to establish the case through credible witness testimony and admissible CCTV evidence.
Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh was hearing the case against Ankit, Sourabh Sharma, Rohit, Rahul Kumar and Sachin. The accused faced charges including rioting, unlawful assembly, damage to property and arson in connection with violence in Shahid Bhagat Singh Colony on February 25, 2020.
In an order dated October 31, the court said the police witnesses who described the alleged riot, vandalism and arson at the mosque were not credible enough to establish guilt. “I find that these witnesses are not credible witnesses and cannot be relied upon to bring home the guilt of the accused as far as the riot, vandalism and arson at Allah Wali Masjid is concerned,” the judge said, according to the order reported by Millennium Post.
The court noted contradictions between the accounts of two police personnel and an independent witness living opposite the mosque. The police personnel claimed to have seen the mosque being vandalised and set ablaze at about 11 am on February 25. The independent witness, however, testified that the mosque was vandalised and set on fire only once, at around 8.15 pm, and that he remained confined to his house for four days after the incident.
The judge also pointed to inconsistencies in the police personnel’s accounts of their movements that day, including their claimed presence at other riot-affected locations. The court said these contradictions weakened the prosecution’s version of events and raised a probability that the alleged arson and vandalism had not occurred in the manner claimed by the prosecution.
The CCTV evidence was also rejected. The court held that the DVDs and hard disks containing the recordings were inadmissible because the mandatory requirements under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act had not been fulfilled. The certificate submitted with the hard disks did not provide details of the computer system used to transfer the data, and the person who issued it did not have control over the data supplied, the court said.
The ruling highlights the importance of reliable witness accounts and properly authenticated digital evidence in prosecutions involving damage to public and religious property during episodes of urban violence. In this case, the court concluded that the evidentiary gaps prevented the prosecution from proving the charges beyond the required legal standard.
“In view of my aforesaid discussion, the prosecution has failed to prove its case against the accused,” the court said while acquitting all five men of the charges. The order concerns the case related to the incident at Allah Wali Masjid in Karawal Nagar during the February 2020 northeast Delhi riots.
